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Mobile commerce and online shopper behaviour in India

Read below more about ecommerce growth, ecommerce sales and cross-border ecommerce in India

The ecommerce market in India holds significant potential, with the second largest population in the world, and only 2% of the population buying online. However, India’s ecommerce potential, especially cross-border, is limited by low urbanization, Internet penetration and income levels. Mobile, however, could be the key to unlock this market – smartphone penetration is growing at 150% year on year.

• Total Population
- 1.26 billion
- Second largest in the world, after China.
• Age Breakdown
- Under 13% of the population of India are over 55.
• Religion
- India is largely Hindu, at 80.5% of the population.
• Urban Population
- 32%
• Internet Penetration
- 243 million people
- 19% penetration
• Mobile Penetration
- 899 million
- 71%
• Tablet Penetration
- 9.3%
• Smartphone Penetration
- 10%
- The penetration rate is growing at 150% year on year.
• Online Shoppers
- 25 million
• Ecommerce Sales
- USD 14.9 billion (including e-retail and ecommerce).
- Average order value increased from USD 17 to USD 30 from 2012 to 2013.
• Ecommerce Penetration
- 11,5%
• Ecommerce CAGR (2008 – 2013)
- 21.7%
Cross-border Ecommerce Opportunities
• The lion’s share of India’s cross-border ecommerce trade is export, as India is considered to be a tricky location for import. This is due to limited infrastructure and urbanization.
• Shopify, the Canada-based shopping cart, expects to double the number of stores operating on its platform in India from 5.000 to 10.000 in the next year, representing potential for Indian ecommerce.
• Indian merchants generated USD 1.8 billion in value in 2013 in cross-border export of ethnic wear, handicraft, leather fashion accessories and semi-precious jewelry.
• The US, UK, India, Russia and Israel are major export destinations for Indian merchants selling online, while China, Germany, Malaysia and Singapore are preferred import hubs. Indeed, 2.3% of China’s cross-border ecommerce export trade was to India.
Language as a Key Driver
• The national languages of India are Hindi (41%) and English (20%).
• There are 350 million English speakers in India.
• There are 422 million Hindi speakers in India.
• Other languages include Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu and Gujarati.
• The percentage of English speakers varies with age — the English speaking ratio is higher among the younger population. In most middle class families, parents may not be English speakers but the children are.
Read the complete text (including sources) about mobile commerce, online shopper behavior, ecommerce growth, ecommerce sales, cross-border ecommerce in India in the downloadable country report.